CD Mastering and Mastering for Digital Release - Part 1 of 3
What is mastering?
Mastering is the final stage where any problems are detected and dealt with; this is why mastering in the same room as doing the mix is a bad idea.
Mastering studios have the highest spec equipment in the game, from the treatment of the room to the Digital to Analogue Converters and the Monitoring system – they are all going to be much higher end than all but the best recording studios.
Added to that you have another set of ears who are used to working on a lot of product in your genre as well as working in a different listening environment. A decent mastering house can sort problems in the mix as well as making the record louder, more dynamic and give your track that aural gold dust.
A good mastering engineer is your best friend, he’ll give you honest feedback, pointers where you could improve, correct your mistakes and help you progress in your career.
Mastering is about a lot more than just making the record louder, the louder you make the record in mastering the less dynamic range you will get. Check out: http://www.turnmeup.org/ for a great illustration of this. Also if you Google "death magnetic" you’ll get an idea of the backlash starting against ultra-loud mixes/masters.
Doing everything “in the box” isn't ideal, I’m not saying you can’t do good work mastering totally digitally but I’ve found to get lovely deep warm sounding masters you need some nice analogue equipment in the signal chain to add the magic.
When a track is made using purely digital equipment from start to finish the result tends to be too clean and too clinical. This is especially true today with more and more of the tracks we are being sent being written and mixed totally on computers.
What Mastering can do, what it can’t do
Mastering will make your tracks sound louder, brighter, more detailed and give it that polished sound so it’s ready for the radio or to be dropped at a club.
If you are working on an EP or Album project the mastering process will ensure all your tracks are at the same level and there is an overall uniform sound to the project.
Issues like a dull or muddy mix can be addressed with various weapons in our toolbox, but there is a limit to what can be achieved.
Gluing the mix together using compression is another aspect mastering can address, as long as the room is there to do it – i.e. the mix hasn’t already been compressed to death.
There are of course limits to what can be done; an instrument or vocal that is too loud or too low in the mix is out of the hands of the mastering engineer. If a mix is really out of the range of what could
be described as acceptable, improvements can be made but there is only so much that can be done.
The adage of garbage in – garbage out applies. The better the mixes are when they arrive at the Mastering Studio the better the results will be at the end of the process.
Coming up:
- Part 2 - Tips for getting a great mix
- Part 3 - Preparing a mix for mastering
- Copyright 2008, Luke Pepper, All Rights Reserved.
No part of this document shall be reproduced without prior consent from the copyright owner.
_______________________________________________
For more Information and Mastering Services check out:
The Chocolate Factory - Mastering Studio, CD Mastering, Mixdowns and Audio Restoration
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment